Oil retailers get cushion

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, Aug. 11: State- owned oil refiners will get Rs 11,000 crore in subsidies for selling diesel, kerosene and domestic cooking gas at government-controlled prices in the first quarter of this fiscal.

In April-June, the three retailers cumulatively lost Rs 28,690.74 crore on the three fuels. Of this, upstream PSUs ONGC, Oil India and GAIL have been asked to meet Rs 15,546.65 crore, or 54 per cent of the under-recovery, or revenue loss. After accounting for government cash subsidy, fuel retailers are still left with about Rs 2,145 crore of unmet losses.

Fuel retailers lost Rs 12,129 crore on LPG, Rs 9,037 crore on diesel and Rs 7,524 crore on kerosene sold through PDS.

Results

GAIL has reported a 23 per cent drop in its first-quarter net profit as it imported high priced LNG amid falling international rates for the commodity. GAIL reported a net profit of Rs 621.44 crore in April-June against Rs 808.17 crore, net profit in the same period a year ago.

HPCL suffered a loss of Rs 46 crore in the first quarter of this fiscal compared with a loss of Rs 1,460 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal. Growth in domestic sales, lower interest costs and exchange variation gains helped HPL cut the loss.

MRPL, a subsidiary of ONGC, suffered a loss of Rs 36 crore in the first quarter against a loss of Rs 454 crore during the same period a year ago.